Brent Hall
Brent Hall is a main character and primary antagonist in QIA. He is the former Director of The London Hub, now wanted for treason. Biography Background Hall was once married to Elaine Watson, but the two have been estranged since around 2010; according to Elaine, the break-up was not particularly amicable. ("Fugitive") Sarah Cunnington, however, witnessed that at least as up until June 2010, the two had a very loving and warm relationship. ("Unnatural") However, after discovering that his house had been broken into by an unnamed quantum terrorist, he brought this to the attention of his superiors in Geneva, even though doing so could bring to light Elaine's illicit dealings in trying to buy the stolen painting, Landscape with Obelisk. This is what ultimately led to their divorce. ("Hall") In November 2015, some five years after Elaine left him, Hall received a visit from his old colleague Jarrad Foley, who told him that he had seen Hall's death in the future, at the hands of Fran Grenouille, otherwise known as Sarah Cunnington. ("Hall") Director of the London Hub Brent Hall is a well-educated man who has risen to the rank of Director of the London Hub in spite of his young age. He has a hidden ruthless and calculating side, however, as he strives to accomplish his own goals even when they are not officially aligned with the QIA's. For example, he had Ethan Taylor unwittingly assist in Chris Darby's murder of Ansar Jilani, claiming it was for the world's benefit, and later had Ethan help Miranda Davenport in destroying all evidence of Jilani's research, and blackmail a man named Patrick Kearney. ("Revelations") Hall was responsible for recruiting Sarah Cunnington into the QIA; having been made aware of her abilities as a Natural, he ordered Ethan Taylor to orchestrate a ruse that would make the Eye send the Hub data on her. ("Sarah", "Revelations") Hall sent Sarah and the rest of the London Field Team, on the Berlin 1933 Mission ("Sarah", "Berlin"). During this mission, Ethan secretly released captive Reclaimer Jacob Dorody, under Hall's orders ("Revelations"). Hall ordered Sarah to interrogate captured Reclaimer Owen Farley, during which he instructed her to blackmail Farley by making subtle threats towards Farley's sister. Following Farley's intelligence regarding collaborator Donald MacKenzie, Hall had the team attempt to convince MacKenzie to defect to the QIA. When Sarah broke protocol and Home Jumped with MacKenzie's son Daniel in order to save him from his original fate of being shot and killed by Adam Conley, Hall decided to use this to his advantage and use Daniel as leverage to convince MacKenzie. However, MacKenzie was murdered in an ambush on the road before he could make it back to London. ("Glasgow") After Sarah, who was undercover in Bethlem Hospital in 1811, became part of documented history, Hall instructed Captain Hafiz and the rest of the team to no longer interfere with the timeline, as doing so would be in clear breach of QIA guidelines. However, in spite of this, he not only allowed Agent Burt to join them, but also provided helpful information that allowed them to mount a rescue operation. ("Elizabeth") Hall sent Sarah to Geneva under orders of the Echelon, and sent Agent Taylor along with her. He also tasked Taylor with the mission of, while in Geneva, planting a device that would allow Hall to bypass the Interface and access the Eye directly. While the two agents were away, however, somebody hacked into the Eye Interface and accessed unknown classified data, something that infuriated Hall. ("Geneva") Hall set up an elaborate plot in Sarah's home village of Lower Penbridge, which resulted in Aleksander Volkov capturing both Ethan and Sarah, under Hall's orders. The purpose of this was to try and influence Sarah into more fully exploring her Natural abilities, but Ethan, who was growing tired of Hall's hold over him, refused to cooperate and the plan failed. However, he later blackmailed Ethan, who had started dating Sarah, into dumping her on Christmas Eve 2019 by forcing him to tell her that he had a girlfriend. This had the intended effect and Sarah made her first Jump of her own accord. ("Revelations") After the Dubai mission, when Ansar Jilani's name came up again, Hall ordered Ethan to cover up the fact that he and Darby had killed him. When evidence came to light that potentially could out Ethan as the mole, Hall blackmailed him into framing Tom Burt. Hall authorised the unprecedented mission into the future in order to arrest Cassius. However, he also had Ethan enable Dorody's escape for a second time. After the mission's inevitable failure, Sarah brought the evidence to Hall which in fact did incriminate Tom, and so he had this data verified by Drew Glenn - who had been helping Hall and Ethan with the cover-up already. Hall authorised the arrest of Tom, but Ethan revealed the truth about his own involvement, and fled. ("Dorody", "Tom", "Revelations"). In light of the recent failures of the team, Hall demoted Hafiz back to the rank of Agent, replacing her as Captain with Joe Graham ("Luxembourg"). Shortly after Ethan fled, Hall ordered retired Agent Alan Burns to track him down and kill him. Alan found Ethan, but was unsuccessful in killing him before he got away again. ("Revelations") Regarding the abduction of Enora Gallou in the year 2263, Hall ordered any rescue operation to be put on hold for now, stating that they could go back for her, at the same time that she was taken, at any point in the future, once they had more information to work with. During the attack on the London Hub by an awakened Mary Bowman, Hall shot and killed Mary to save Sarah's life, but inadvertently revealed that an immediate rescue operation for Enora was impossible, leading to Sarah making an unauthorised Jump back to the future anyway. ("Tom", "Spitalfields"). Later that same day, during the police raid on the Hub led by DCI Rupa Kalsi, Hall ordered Hafiz and Tom to enact the Bermuda Protocol. He also met with Kalsi, and offered her a job - which she refused. ("Walker") After learning the truth about his deeds and morality, Sarah was confronted in her own home by Hall, who assured her that he was not affiliated with the Reclaimers. However, he told her that she was the only one who could stop their endgame, and sent her to 1954, where she was indeed able to prevent Robert Tunneson from using Daniel MacKenzie - aka Patient 47 - as the catalyst for attempting to create a natural Hub on the Katla caldera in Iceland. He then sent Dan Hamilton and Vicky Wells to arrest Sarah for the murder of Chris Darby. ("Reclamation") Since Sarah escaped arrest, Hall has become obsessed with her capture ("Sides"), to the point that he even threatened Hafiz with being charged as a collaborator unless she actively pursued the former Agent's arrest ("Fugitive"). Once the name Jarrad Foley surfaced (following the Toledo mission), Hall immediately contacted Miranda and tasked her with murdering Foley in 2011. ("Rupa") Later, after Sarah was captured by Miranda, Hall sent Marcus Anderson to beat Sarah up, but Miranda let Sarah go and Anderson, having been "promised a girl", beat up Miranda in her place ("Rome"). After the successful apprehension of Sebastián Marcos, Hall tasked Denny Franklin with taking a sample of Marcos' blood to Henry Macht, a solicitor in Temple, on the pretense of them learning about how he had become a Natural - something that Denny was very interested in. Shortly afterwards, Hall ordered Dan Hamilton to tag and arrest Sarah, whom Hamilton had spotted during the Rome mission. ("Northolt") Following Sarah's conviction as a quantum terrorist ("Justice"), Hall ordered Anderson to kill Tom, whose memories had returned and who could potentially incriminate him. However, despite his diligence, Hafiz linked the two and fabricated evidence, with Mike Duncan's help, to frame him for the hit on Tom. Consequently, Hall was arrested by Rupa and confined to an interrogation cell. He later escaped, with the aid of Denny Franklin and an unknown French ally, but not before (allegedly) murdering Joseph Christophe, a high-ranking Reclaimer whom the Field Team had also taken into custody earlier that same day. ("Hall", "Denny") In fact, Hall did not kill Christophe, instead faking his death with the help of The Circle and taking him with him to use as leverage to obtain assistance from the Reclaimers' new leader (and Christophe's successor) Radimir Krepela in Malta. He kept Christophe prisoner in the basement of a house in Denmark for five weeks, until he needed him. ("Adam", "Malta") Post-QIA Hall relocated to Denmark, where he resides mainly in the Royal Suite of the Hotel D'Angleterre. There, solicitor Henry Macht brought him an unknown substance, which he began injecting himself with. Hall reached out to Miranda, who had mostly recovered from her ordeal with Anderson. Hall manipulated her by telling her that he had arranged Anderson's death because of what he had done to her, then sent her to recover some files from inside the Hub ("Change"). The files recovered were called omega.exe, theta.exe and list.db, the latter being a database of blackmail information he had been using to secure the loyalty of many employees within the London Hub. While in Malta to meet with Krepela, Hall also took the opportunity to approach recently-wed Rupa Shaw, to offer her a job. However, he did this knowing she would contact the others in London, for the sole purpose of making contact with Sarah; he gave her a stark warning to stay away from Northern Ireland. ("Malta") Unbeknownst to Hall, Denny had only helped him escape at the behest of Draper, using his sister's terminal illness as the reason, in order to become a double agent. However, Hall began to grow suspicious and eventually gave Denny a final task - to murder Erik Draper - while simultaneously calling Sarah personally to tell her what was about to happen. Draper, however, had already known about this from a wiretap, and allowed Denny to believe that he had succeeded and that Draper had died, so that Denny might then lead them to Hall. ("Denny") Future At some point, in 1991, Hall will threaten and then shoot an as-yet unnamed male Agent ("Change"). In 2026, Brent Hall recreated Tunneson's experiment, this time using an actual solar eclipse and a real Natural (Nicole Harris) as the catalyst. In doing so, he killed Nicole and seems to have succeeded, although the actual consequences of his actions remain unknown, as he blackmailed Sarah into Home Jumping and taking him with her. 2026 Hall then sent her to rescue Tom Burt from being murdered by Alan Burns, but had, it seems, planned all of this out. 2026 Hall is still currently in the year 2020. ("Reclamation") Relationships Sarah Cunnington Hall carefully manipulated Sarah's recruitment into the QIA, and subsequently put much of his efforts into controlling her progress, including exploring her abilities as a Natural ("Revelations"). After Ethan Taylor told her the truth ("Revelations"), he arranged for her to be arrested ("Reclamation"). However, Sarah evaded capture thanks to Hafiz, and Hall is now hellbent on her arrest ("Sides"). Tasneem Hafiz Hall respects Hafiz, appointing her as the new Captain of the Field Team shortly after the death of former Captain Chris Darby ("Home"). After a series of unsuccessful missions, however, he demoted her in favour of Joe Graham ("Luxembourg"). Later, in spite of Hafiz's support of wanted terrorist Sarah Cunnington, Hall nonetheless reinstated her as Captain ("Sides"). Ethan Taylor Hall heavily manipulated Ethan into doing many illegal and immoral acts, on many occasions outright blackmailing him ("Revelations"). After Ethan was revealed as the mole, Hall ordered his arrest ("Luxembourg"). Rupa Kalsi Although initially very hostile during her investigation into the London Hub ("Walker"), since her recruitment into the QIA, Rupa has become an ally in finding and arresting Sarah Cunnington ("Sides"). Denny Franklin Hall's manipulation of Denny, as with Ethan before him, was gradual. At first he played on Denny's desire to be a Natural, which was greatly fuelled by the investigation into Sebastián Marcos, who had seemingly been turned into one. As he was grooming Denny, however, the young Agent was contacted by Erik Draper, and ordered to become a double agent. Denny released Hall after his arrest, and started feeding the former Director information, all at Draper's behest. This culminated when Hall ordered Denny to murder Draper, which he did - although Draper had engineered the situation so as to convince Denny that he had been killed. ("Denny") Elaine Watson Elaine is Hall's ex-wife. Up until at least June 2010, the two were in a very warm, loving and stable relationship ("Unnatural"); however, at some point after this, their relationship broke down for as-yet unknown reasons ("Fugitive"). Appearances Season One 1Flashbacks only Season Two 1Credited as Also Starring; 2Credited as Special Guest Star Unanswered Questions * What is Hall's true endgame? ** Why are Sarah, Ethan and Enora seemingly so vital to his plans? * What did he mean when he warned Sarah to stay away from Northern Ireland? ** Was he referring to the incident with Chris Darby in Belfast, 1972? * Why did he want Miranda to kill Jarrad Foley, even though he due to be murdered anyway? * Why was November 2nd 2015 such a big day for him? * Who in the London Hub is still loyal to him? * What is he injecting himself with? * Who will he shoot in 1991? * Who is his French ally? Trivia Hall frequently steeples his fingers during meetings ("Bedlam", et al). Hall has informed Ethan that he needs him, Sarah and Enora, but that everyone else is seemingly expendable, but has yet to reveal why. He reads (and likely speaks) Danish ("Change"). Hall is portrayed by Jamie McCormack for photographic appearances, and by Alexander Staniforth for vocal performances.Category:Characters